The Camera Was Discovered!?

After leaving the mall, Qiuyue didn't hurry back to the dormitory. Instead, he went to the Library.

Qiuyue headed straight for the mystery novel section, picked out a book at random, and glanced around. Then he spotted a familiar figure.

Qiuyue hurried over to the seat across from her. They exchanged smiles, and he sat down.

"Long time no see, Shiina."

Shiina picked up the bookmark on the table and placed it on the page she was reading. Then she closed the book and replied,

"It hasn't been that long, has it, Qiuyue? Have you been busy with something these past few months? You haven't been coming to the Library much."

"Ahaha... Nothing much. You know, just those things with Class D.

What are you reading today? Knowing you, Shiina, it must be a book with some really clever crimes."

"I'm reading The Tokyo Zodiac Murders. What about you, Qiuyue? You always manage to pick out difficult mystery novels. Is that on purpose?"

"Uh... Is this book really that impressive?"

Qiuyue scratched his head, puzzled.

"So you really didn't know. The one you picked is another one of Sakura Country's Four Great Strange Books, just like the last one."

Qiuyue looked at the title page of the book in his hands: The Offering to the Void.

Qiuyue: (My luck is unreal. There are only four books, and I picked this one at random...)

"Enough about that. Shiina, let's try to figure out what's going to happen next with this fight between Class D and Class C."

"Why? I'm not interested in the class competition."

Shiina didn't seem interested in what Qiuyue was talking about. She reopened the book she'd just closed.

"I'm not interested either. Only Class A gets to enjoy the school's benefits. There's no way Class D can move up to Class A, no matter how you look at it. The sooner we give up, the sooner we can relax."

"Give up?"

Shiina seemed not to understand what Qiuyue meant. She tilted her head, looking like a puzzled kitten.

Qiuyue: (I just thought of a great title: My Naive Bookworm Girlfriend.)

"It's an expression from the Zhonghua Family. It means, 'Whatever, let things happen as they will.' Wasn't that explanation easy to understand?"

As he spoke, Qiuyue slumped over the table, limp as a rag doll.

Seeing how quickly Qiuyue had struck a pose of giving up, Shiina chuckled.

"...Is that so? You really do know how to keep things interesting, Qiuyue. I don't know all the details, but I think Class D has a very small chance of winning."

"That's true. Sudo hitting them is an unchangeable fact. Even if we can prove Class C provoked him and made the first move, Sudo doesn't have many injuries. There's no way he can be found not guilty in this incident. I guess he brought it on himself."

"Qiuyue, are you saying that if Class D had simply denied from the start that one of its students hit a Class C student, things might still have turned around?

"In other words, you're certain Class C has no evidence proving a Class D student hit a Class C student. Isn't that right, Qiuyue?"

A smile appeared on Shiina's face. She looked confident and pleased with herself, as if she were sure of her deduction and believed she'd found the answer.

Qiuyue: (Loose lips sink ships. Why did I even bring this up with her? I underestimated Class C's hidden strategist. I should just stick to being a fellow book lover...)

(I only came here to show my face, so Kushida wouldn't come looking for me. What am I supposed to do now...)

"...If they had any evidence, wouldn't Class C have used it when they brought the case against Sudo? But they haven't used anything so far. Sudo even admitted it himself, and 'self-defense' is a pretty flimsy excuse."

Qiuyue tried to argue his way out of it. Shiina only smiled and said nothing.

"..."

Qiuyue realized that his excuses were getting him nowhere, so he gave up and quietly began reading the strange book in his hands, The Offering to the Void.

Time flew by, and soon it was time for dinner. Qiuyue checked his phone, stood up, and said to Shiina,

"It's getting late, so I'll get going. I'm going to borrow this book. I haven't finished it yet, but I'll come back and tell you what I think once I have."

"Mm, bye. See you next time."

Shiina set her book down on the table and said goodbye to Qiuyue.

"Yeah, bye."

After successfully borrowing the book from the librarian, Qiuyue went straight to the cafeteria and chose the second floor.

Qiuyue went to the serving counter and asked the woman there for two meat dishes, a vegetable dish, and a bowl of soup.

"Could you give me a little extra rice, please? I've got quite an appetite."

Qiuyue surveyed the room, picked out the least crowded area, and sat down at an empty table.

Qiuyue began his dinner.

"Oh? Qiuyue?"

Qiuyue looked toward the voice and spotted a conspicuous head of pink hair.

Qiuyue: (...Seriously? Is this school so small that I can even run into Ichinose?)

(Oh, well. It's not like I can do anything about running into her. But why is Chihiro Shiranami with her? Have they still not talked things out? Or did they make up already? That was fast.)

"It really is Qiuyue~ Is anyone sitting with you?"

Ichinose asked excitedly and happily. Chihiro Shiranami seemed to have only just realized who the student in front of her was.

"Huh... Is that the student from last time, Honami?"

"Ahaha... Yeah."

Ichinose remembered how Qiuyue had helped her out by pretending to confess to someone and get rejected. Her face flushed as she awkwardly replied.

Qiuyue: (?...That was fast. It's only been a few days, and she's already calling her Honami. At this rate, you really are a succubus, Ichinose...)

"...I'm eating alone, so no one's sitting beside me."

"Great~ Chihiro-chan, let's sit here, okay?"

"Since you say so, Honami... Then let's sit here. Honami, we'll sit on this side."

Ichinose wanted to sit beside Qiuyue, but how could Chihiro Shiranami let her sit next to someone else?

Chihiro Shiranami led Ichinose to the seat across from Qiuyue, then gave him a hostile look.

"..."

Qiuyue: (...Is that really necessary...?)

Qiuyue was nine-tenths speechless, so he simply ignored Chihiro Shiranami's hostility and got down to the serious business of eating.

"Qiuyue, what's your class planning to do next?"

"Do about what?"

Qiuyue pretended not to know what Ichinose meant. Thinking he really didn't know, Ichinose explained.

"I mean Sudo's situation. I attended today's meeting. Since Class B is working with Class D, I really hope Class D wins the case.

"But there wasn't a decision today. They gave both sides more time to find evidence, and they'll hold another meeting tomorrow."

Qiuyue: (...I know all that...)

Qiuyue sighed.

"I've said it before: I can't help much. I don't know what they're planning next, either. When the sky falls, someone taller will hold it up. I'm sure they'll think of something."

"...Is that so...?"

"That's right. I'm not a class leader, or even a central figure. I'm just a minor character who could be done without. It's perfectly normal that I don't know, so you've asked the wrong person, Ichinose."

"Not at all! That's not true. I think you're kind and amazing, Qiuyue. You're not a minor character at all. You shouldn't talk about yourself like that."

Ichinose shook her head emphatically, then wagged her index finger back and forth in front of Qiuyue as she argued.

Qiuyue: (...Me...kind? That dreaded yasashii... A word that has nothing to do with me, even across two lifetimes. I'm surprised to hear someone call me yasashii.)

Seeing Ichinose act like that made the hostility in Chihiro Shiranami's eyes toward Qiuyue even more intense. It was so intense it seemed like it might take shape.

"...Thanks, Ichinose. I'd never thought of myself as such a good person before."

"Qiuyue, you don't have to keep putting yourself down. I think you're a good person, you know."

Qiuyue: (...Did she just give me a 'good person' card? And...'Qiuyue'?)

"I've been meaning to ask: what's with the 'Qiuyue'?"

Ichinose suddenly grew self-conscious and asked cautiously,

"Huh...? Qiuyue... Do you... not like it?"

Ichinose thought she'd suddenly gotten too familiar and made Qiuyue uncomfortable.

"...Call me whatever you like. It's just a name, after all. Then I'll drop the '-san' too."

"That's fine."

Ichinose's smile bloomed again as she replied.

Qiuyue: (As someone from the Zhonghua Family, I'm not particularly bothered by that kind of thing.)

Once the conversation ended, Qiuyue wolfed down his food and finished everything in no time.

"I'm done. Ichinose, Chihiro, I'll get going."

"Huh... That was fast! Qiuyue, you didn't have to rush."

"I'm used to eating this fast. Sorry, Ichinose."

"It's okay. See you tomorrow."

"Yeah, see you tomorrow."

After returning to his room, Qiuyue immediately opened the drawer where he'd put the tablet earlier.

"It's still recording... Then let's take a look at the footage from earlier."

Qiuyue replayed the footage of Hirata and Horikita tricking the Class C students while installing the camera.

"There shouldn't be any problems now. It recorded everything. Looks like I won't need it after all. I'll just have Horikita expelled. I can't have Hirata expelled too—not before I leave Class D, at least. Otherwise, Class D will fall apart."

Just as Qiuyue was putting everything away, ready to enjoy a nice bath, the surveillance footage slowly turned into static.

Qiuyue's hair stood on end when he saw this.

"What's going on? What happened? Why did it turn into this? Is the signal bad? Hm? The picture's moving. Is someone holding the camera?"

The footage shook for a while, then finally steadied again. The static disappeared, and the picture returned to normal.

"That's a signal jammer for pinhole cameras! Someone just picked it up to check whether it had a memory card!

"There are two kinds of pinhole cameras. One connects to a device and records in real time; the other has a memory card inside. You can watch the recordings by removing the card from the camera."

"If they have something like that, they must have found my pinhole camera too. Why didn't they use it from the start? Why let me record Horikita and Hirata?"

"Are they not in Class D? Do they want me to get someone from Class D expelled? Without Hirata, Class D's order will definitely collapse. Though, maybe not. There is someone who could pull this off. Ayanokoji, was it you?"